Why Didn't the Police Have Schwartz and/or Lawende Take a Look at Hutchinson?

Assuming for the sake of argument that the police were not completely inept, and if virtually everybody on these boards thinks that Hutchinson's behavior that night was suspicious, why would the police not have had Schwartz and/or Lawende take a look at him to see if he was the man they saw.

We have no evidence that the police ever suspected Hutchinson. And that is a great pity. Had they done so, and had they brought him face to face with Lawende and Schwartz, we might not be needing these message boards, and could all go back to doing something else with our time instead. The same goes for Joseph Barnett.

I probably didn't word my original post as well as I should have. If we go with the assumption that the police never viewed Hutchinson as a suspect we have to ask ourselves why? I find it extremely unlikely (although not impossible) that they didn't find his story and his actions suspicious. That would have made him a person of interest. But it seems that he never became a serious suspect. My guess is that their investigation (and I am assuming there was one) somehow cleared him so that an identification by Schwartz and or Lawende was not necessary.

Yes, I know that is a lot of assumptions but I refuse to believe that the police were really that inept.

We don't know if there was any sort of informal ID of Hutchinson. A lot of the case files have been lost, although I suspect it would've been leaked by the press if they had caught wind of it.
I agree that the likeliest answer is the police never suspected Hutchinson. They probably thought he was legit at best, a time-waster at worst.
They were inexperienced at dealing with serial killers and perhaps wouldn't have suspected a killer of inserting himself into the investigation.

I probably didn't word my original post as well as I should have. If we go with the assumption that the police never viewed Hutchinson as a suspect we have to ask ourselves why? I find it extremely unlikely (although not impossible) that they didn't find his story and his actions suspicious. That would have made him a person of interest. But it seems that he never became a serious suspect. My guess is that their investigation (and I am assuming there was one) somehow cleared him so that an identification by Schwartz and or Lawende was not necessary.

Yes, I know that is a lot of assumptions but I refuse to believe that the police were really that inept.

c.d.

It clearly stares everyone in the face that something wasn't at all right about Hutchinson or he's statement.
My first ever post was about this and I asked if people thought Abberline was incompetent ......that didn't go down well.
I came to the conclusion that the Police knew more than they let on, and we're holding back certain information at the time.

They were inexperienced at dealing with serial killers and perhaps wouldn't have suspected a killer of inserting himself into the investigation.

Hello Harry,

But even if that were true would there be any limitations on it? In other words, if a bloody knife and organs fell out of his pocket would they simply say well that is kind of suspicious but on the other hand he did come forward on his own volition? OK, that is really stretching it. But what if during their questioning he says he last saw Mary about a year ago but then later says he saw her just a few weeks ago. What then? Still no suspicion because he came forward?